Cats are the Universe

Cats are the Universe is a multimedia piece of mine. It is three oversized photos put together. I used pencil, charcoal, conte crayons, and india ink. I created it as a Foundation Drawing final piece in fall 2021, but in spring 2023 it was featured at the annual Juried Art Show Competition Exhibition! The triptych was created for my final piece in the class. The materials used were ink, white charcoal, white conte, charcoal, graphite, and ebony pencil. It was rendered on three sheets of 22”x30” paper. Ideas were conceptualized through compiling similar images and sketching them in a variety of ways. I was inspired by the idea of surrealism when configuring the elements of this piece. I had the idea to try to portray the fierceness of tigers and cats in this piece. I was interested in the fact that cats are domesticated, but they evolved from wild animals like tigers. I was additionally inspired by the universe and evolution of cats. I abstracted the moon and planets into cat's eye and tiger’s eye marbles. The third panel is supposed to be a space-like environment. The center of interest is the realistically rendered tiger in the foreground on the center sheet. The piece has a strong sense of hierarchy throughout. Additionally, the layering of objects creates depth. I also experimented with negative and positive space in this piece. If I were to redo this piece, I would rearrange elements in the third panel. Overall, this piece is strong and has harmony.